Tao 

et al. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. (2019) 32:4

https://doi.org/10.1186/s10033-019-0319-9 Chinese Journal of Mechanical
Engineering

ORIGINAL ARTICLE Open Access

Influence of Cross‑Sectional Flow Area

of Annular Volute Casing on Transient
Characteristics of Ceramic Centrifugal Pump
Yi Tao1,2*  , Shouqi Yuan2, Jianrui Liu2 and Fan Zhang2

Abstract 
The annular volute is typically used in a slurry pump to reduce the collisions between solid particles and the volute
tongue and to achieve a better resistance to blocking. However, only limited studies regarding annular volutes are
available, and there is no systematic design method for annular volutes. In this study, the influence of volute casing
cross-sectional flow area on the hydraulic loss, pressure pulsations, and radial force under varying working conditions
in a centrifugal ceramic pump are discussed in detail. Experimental tests were conducted to validate the numerical
results. The results indicated that, when the volute casing flow area increases, the hydraulic performance decreases
marginally under the rated working conditions, but increases at the off-design points, specifically under large flow
condition. However, the volute casing with a larger flow area has a wider high-efficiency region. In addition, the
increase in the volute casing flow area will decrease the pressure pulsations in the volute, regardless of the working
condition, and decrease the radial force on the shaft, therefore, providing an improved pump operational stability. It is
anticipated that this study will be of benefit during the design of annular volutes.
Keywords:  Annular volute, Centrifugal pump, Cross section, Transient characteristics, Pressure pulsation, Radial force

1 Introduction the transient characteristics of a centrifugal ceramic

As a critical piece of conveying equipment, a number
of industries, including chemical engineering, metal
smelting, mining, and environmental protection, use
ceramic centrifugal pumps to pump slurry contain-
ing solid particles that could cause serious abrasion of
the flow components because of their excellent resist-
ance to erosion, abrasion, and high temperature [1–4].
To prolong the service life of the flow components of
centrifugal slurry pumps, the impellers typically have
thicker blades [5, 6]. However, in centrifugal pumps,
the relative flow discharged from the impeller chan-
nels typically exhibits a non-uniform distribution
with a jet-wake pattern, which can be attributed to
the blade thickness, the boundary layer on both sides
of blades, and the secondary flows inside the impel-
ler channels [7]. The influence of blade thickness on
*Correspondence: 41642587@qq.com
1
Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology, Wuxi 214206, China
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
pump was reported in our previous studies [8]. In addi-
tion, the amplitude of pressure fluctuations is typi-
cally a maximum close to the tongue region, where
the radial gap between the impeller and volute tongue
is small and, therefore, a strong interaction can take
place between the jet-wake-like flow and the volute in
conventional spiral volute casings [9]. However, the
effect of impact wear is observed to be the greatest in
the tongue region, while sliding wear is dominant in
the belly region of the volute casing [10–14]. Therefore,
the volute casings of centrifugal ceramic pumps are
annular instead of spiral, which means that there is an
identical cross-sectional flow area from cross section I
to cross section VIII, as shown in Figure 1, in the flow
direction. The gap between the impeller periphery and
volute tongue was then increased with the advantage of
decreasing the collisions of solid particles on the volute
tongue [15]. A number of studies [16–18] reported
that an increment in the tongue-impeller gap could
reduce pressure pulsations and the overall radial force.

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Tao et al. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. (2019) 32:4
Figure 1  Pump structure
However, a significant portion of the flow will reenter
the volute instead of being discharged to the outlet
duct because of the large gap between the tongue and
impeller that will decrease the pump performance [19].
Barrio et  al. [20] reported the unsteady flow behavior
close to the tongue region of a single-suction volute-
type centrifugal pump. They found that the pulsation
in leakage through the impeller-tongue gap increased
by 30% when the flow rate increased by 60% from the
rated condition. Alemi et  al. [21] and Yang et  al. [22]
reported the influence of cross-sectional shape on the
hydraulic performance of a centrifugal pump and found
that the circular cross sectional shape could provide a
higher pump head and efficiency than trapezoidal and
rectangle shapes. Bowerman et al. [23], Chan et al. [24],
and Chang et al. [25] reported that reducing the cross-
sectional area could offset the optimal efficiency point
to a smaller flow rate condition and result in a steeper
pressure fall at the pump outlet, specifically under large
flow rate conditions.
As far as the authors are aware, only limited studies
have been reported in open literature considering cen-
trifugal pumps with annular volutes, although numer-
ous studies have reported the transient characteristics
of conventional spiral volute casings. In this study, the
influence of the cross-sectional area of the annular
volute of a ceramic centrifugal pump on the transient
characteristics and the pump hydraulic performance
are investigated. Two volute casings were custom-built
Page 2 of 13
to experimentally validate the numerical results. It
is anticipated that this study will be of benefit in the
design of ceramic slurry pumps.
2 Pump Geometry
The pump under study is a single-stage horizontal cen-
trifugal ceramic pump with an annular volute casing.
The pump structure is shown in Figure  1. The compo-
nents that are directly exposed to slurry, including the
impeller, the volute casing, the shaft sleeve, and the
shaft end nut, are made of engineering ceramic. The
ceramic volute casing was enclosed in an iron housing
to make provision for an accidental failure. The rated
working condition of the ceramic pump is a flow rate
Q of 100 m3/h and a rotational speed n of 2900 r/min.
The impeller is semi-open, namely without a front
shroud, and has four backward-curved blades and 12
backward-curved back blades outside the back shroud.
As opposed to the spiral volute casing used in conven-
tional centrifugal pumps, the annular volute casing has
a fixed cross-sectional area and a greater gap between
the tongue and impeller exit. The cross-sectional area
of the annular volute casing of the original case was
designed to be identical to cross section VIII of the
spiral volute casing, as shown in Figure 1, based on the
velocity coefficient method [26]. The primary geomet-
ric dimensions of the ceramic pump are presented in
Table 1.
Tao et al. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. (2019) 32:4 Page 3 of 13

Table 1  Primary geometric dimensions Table 2  Grid independence analysis

Parameter Value Grid number 2071856 3115696 4021768 5013874

Suction branch diameter Ds (m) 0.1 Head H (m) 47.38 48.02 48.43 48.61
Discharge branch diameter Dd (m) 0.08 Efficiency η (%) 59.26 59.87 60.22 60.49
Impeller eye diameter D1 (m) 0.09
Impeller exit diameter D2 (m) 0.21
Leading edge width b1 (m) 0.041
performance is less than 1%. Therefore, a final cell num-
Trailing edge width b2 (m) 0.028
ber of 4021768 was utilized for case 1. Because there is
Leading edge blade angle β1 (°) 20
no obvious structural difference between the three cases,
Trailing edge blade angle β2 (°) 26
the grid refinement and blocking method were used for
Blade wrap angle φ (°) 120
the other two cases.
Back blade width bb (m) 0.005
Volute chamber width b3 (m) 0.063
3.2 Pre‑processing
Diameter to volute tongue D3 Varying
The transient flow through the modeled pump was
simulated using the commercial software ANSYS CFX
14.5, which utilized the finite volume method to solve
the unsteady three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equa-
3 Numerical Method
tions. Because of the fast convergence and the accurate
3.1 Calculation Domain and Grid Generation
hydraulic performance achieved compared to other tur-
Three cases, with volute tongue diameters of 281  mm
bulence models, the standard k-ε model was selected to
(case 1), 305  mm (case 2), and 329  mm (case 3), were
complete the turbulence equation, with the standard wall
numerically simulated. For all three cases, the calcula-
function for the treatment of the flow in the boundary
tion domain comprised six modules, namely the suc-
layer based on the refined grids [27]. All the solid walls
tion branch, impeller, front chamber, back chamber,
in the computational domain were set as no-slip walls
back blades, and volute casing. The entire calculation
with a roughness of 0.2  mm. The surfaces of the impel-
domain was meshed by hexahedral-structured grids
ler and back blades were set in a rotating reference frame
with the aim of high precision and rapid convergence by
with a rotational speed identical to the nominal operat-
the ANSYS ICEM 14.5 software. All the grids that bor-
ing speed of the pump [28, 29]. All the other surfaces
dered on solid walls, specifically the blade surfaces and
were set in a stationary frame. The transient rotor–stator
the volute tongue region, were refined for the treatment
model was attached to the interfaces between the rotat-
of the wall function, as shown in Figure  2. A grid inde-
ing and stationary regions. An axial velocity, based on
pendence analysis was performed at the rated working
the variation of the flow rate, was provided at the inlet
condition for case 1 to investigate the effect of grid num-
boundary located at the suction branch. In addition, the
ber and refinement method on the simulation results. As
outlet boundary was set as an opening with a specified
presented in Table  2, it can be seen that when the grid
static pressure in the case of the upstream influence of
number reaches 4.02 million, the variation in the pump
backflow on the primary flow domain. A high-resolution
technique was used for the discretization of the advec-
tion scheme and turbulence terms. The second-order
backward Euler method was applied for the transient
scheme. The convergence criterion was set as 1 × 10−5
for the scaled residuals, with at least 20 iterations per
time step. The time step was set as 0.000172414  s, as
this provided a blade rotation of 3° between iterations,
which means an impeller rotational period covers 120
time steps. Ten impeller revolutions were required when
the flow reached a clear periodic regime. The data of one
additional impeller revolution was then extracted to ana-
lyze the transient flow characteristics for each case. The
data include the maximum, minimum, time-average, and
standard deviation of the selected flow variables, includ-
ing static pressure, total pressure, relative velocity, and
Figure 2  Calculation domain and grid meshing
absolute velocity.
Tao et al. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. (2019) 32:4 Page 4 of 13

4 Validation of CFD Results

To validate the capabilities of the numerical simulation,
volute casings for case 1 and case 2 were manufactured
for the hydraulic performance test. The test rig is an
open type and comprises two pressure transducers with
measurement errors of 0.25%, mounted at a short dis-
tance up and downstream of the pump inlet and outlet,
a turbine flow meter with a measurement error of 0.5%,
and a torque meter with a measurement error less than
0.1%. In addition, a valve is mounted at the outlet pipe to
adjust the flow rate and a data acquisition instrument is
used to record the parameters. The test rig processes the
identification of a national grade 1 precision (GB/T 3216-
2005) of the Department of Science and Technology in
the Jiangsu province of China (Figure 3).
Figure  4 shows the comparison of the numerical and
experimental Q-H and Q-η curves, showing a good
quantitative agreement with the relative errors in heads
smaller than 1.5%, and efficiency smaller than 3%, under
the rated working condition. However, the difference
between the simulation the test results increases when
the flow rate offsets away from the rated working condi-
tion. Specifically, at a flow rate of 30 m3/h, the difference
in the head and efficiency were 4.8% and 8.2%, respec-
tively. This is, in all probability, because of the limitation
of the turbulence model in dealing with the significant
vortex and backflow. In addition, the head curve of the
case with the greater cross-sectional area exhibits a flat
and rightward decreasing tendency overall, and the head
curve of the case with the smaller cross-sectional area
in the low flow rate region decreases slowly. It can be
reasonably surmised that the small volute casing cross-
sectional area could cause a hump in the pump head
Figure 4  Comparison of numerical and experimental results
curve, which will result in a surge in the pipe system. At
the rated working condition, the hydraulic performance
decreases marginally with increasing volute casing flow
area. While the pump operation offsets away from the
rated working condition, the case with a greater volute
casing flow area exhibits improved hydraulic perfor-
mance. In addition, the high-efficiency region widens
with increasing volute casing flow area. In summary, from
the comparisons it can be concluded that the numerical
simulation can be considered adequate to investigate the
unsteady flow behavior in the pump.

5 Results and Discussion
5.1 Hydraulic Loss in Volute Casing
Figure  5 shows the hydraulic loss in the annular volute
casing for each case under five flow rates. It can be seen
that the hydraulic loss in the volute casing is a maxi-
mum at the working condition for all three cases. The
hydraulic loss increases with increasing volute flow rate
Figure 3  Test rig
at the working condition. However, the opposite can be
Tao et al. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. (2019) 32:4
Figure 5  Hydraulic loss in volute casing
observed under large and small flow condition. As can be
seen in Figure  4, the variation in pump performance at
the working condition was less affected by the increases
in the flow area. However, the hydraulic loss of the small
volute casing flow area increases significantly under large
and small flow condition. Typically, the greater hydrau-
lic loss in the volute casing and impeller is the primary
reason for the decrease in the pump head and efficiency.
The variation in pump performance with increasing
volute casing exhibits the same tendency with the change
in hydraulic loss in the volute. Therefore, it can be con-
cluded that the variation in the pump performance with
the change in the volute casing flow area is primarily
caused by the hydraulic loss in the volute casing. Detail
regarding the flow variation in the volute casing with the
change in the volute casing flow area will be discussed in
the following section.
Figure 6  Hydraulic loss in volute casing
Page 5 of 13
5.2 Analysis of Flow Rate Distribution at Cross‑Sections
Figure 6 shows the flow rate at the cross sections of the
annular volute under three working conditions with flow
rates of 30  m3/h, 100  m3/h, and 170  m3/h. It should be
noted that cross section I (Figure 1) is located at 3° back-
ward of the volute tongue. The other seven cross-sections
have an equivalent deviation angle of 60°. Cross section 9
represents the throat cross section and cross section  11
the outlet of the pump. It can be seen that the flow rate
increases from cross section I to cross section VIII
regardless of the flow rate variation for all three cases.
In addition, the increase in flow rate from cross section
I to the throat cross section increases with increasing
flow rate at the pump inlet. The flow rate at cross section
I comprises two parts that can be observed in Figure  7.
One part is the flow discharged from the impeller, and the
other part is the flow from cross section VIII that flows
back into the volute casing through the gap between
the volute tongue and impeller periphery. When the
pump operates at the low flow condition with a flow rate
of 30  m3/h, the bulk of the fluid circulates in the volute
casing, as can be seen in Figure 7(a). Backflow occurs in
the diffuser because of the significant pressure gradient
and circulating flow. When the pump operates under the
large flow condition with a flow rate of 170 m3/h, the flow
rate through the cross section I decreases significantly, as
can be seen in Figure 6(c). The backflow occurs at posi-
tions backward from cross section I. In addition, it can
be seen that the flow rate through cross section VIII is
smaller than the pump flow rate. Therefore, a part of
the fluid discharged from the impeller passage close
to the volute tongue flows toward the throat cross sec-
tion, resulting in the backflow, which can be seen in Fig-
ure  7(c). By comparing the flow rates of the three cases
at the volute cross-sections, it can be observed that the
increase in the volute flow area can increase the volute
Tao et al. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. (2019) 32:4
Figure 7  Velocity distribution at mid span of volute casing for case 1
flow capacity, which accordingly shifts the maximum effi-
ciency point offsets toward the large flow condition.
5.3 Pressure and Velocity Distribution in Volute Casing
Figure  8 shows the distribution of static pressure and
velocity at the volute casing inlet and the total pressure
at the cross sections at the nominal flow rate for the three
cases. It should be noted that the velocity, the static pres-
sure, and the total pressure are time-averaged during
one impeller revolution and can be extracted from the
ANSYS CFX-Post software. As the flow rate increases
from cross section I to cross section VIII, the velocity
also increases. After the fluid flows through the cross
section VIII, it will separate into two parts, one of which
flows toward the throat cross section, and the other back
into the volute through cross section I. Therefore, in Fig-
ure 8(a), it can be seen that the velocity decreases signifi-
cantly from cross section VIII to cross section I and, in
Figure 8(b), it can be seen that the static pressure clearly
increases from cross section VIII to cross section I. By
comparing the three cases, it can be observed that the
static pressure becomes less uniform as the volute cas-
ing flow area decreases, specifically in the region close to
cross section VIII. As can be seen in Figure 8(c), when the
volute casing flow area increases, the total pressure from
cross section I to cross section V increases, while the
total pressure from cross section V to the pump outlet
decreases. Typically, two symmetrical vortexes are antici-
pated at the cross section to achieve an improved hydrau-
lic performance. As can be seen in Figure 9, the smaller
flow area of the cross section results in additional asym-
metric vortices at cross section I, which result in a lower
total pressure. However, the area of the vortices at cross
section VIII decreases with decreasing cross-sectional
Page 6 of 13
flow area, which results in a higher total pressure at cross
section VIII. The vortices at the throat cross section for
all the three cases are approximately identical, as is the
decrease ratio of the total pressure from the throat cross
section to the pump outlet. It can be observed that the
vortex structure at cross section VIII has a greater effect
on the hydraulic loss in the volute casing than the uni-
formity of the static pressure distribution at the volute
casing inlet under the rated working condition.
Figure 10 shows the distribution of static pressure and
velocity at the volute casing inlet, and the total pressure
at cross-sections, at a flow rate of 30 m3/h for the three
cases. By comparing Figure  10(a) and Figure  8(a), it can
be observed that the velocity from cross section I to cross
section IV increases even with a decrease in the pump
flow rate. The reason for this can be seen in Figure  6.
Although the flow rate of pump decreases, the flow at
cross section VIII remains approximately constant. Only
the flow rate at the throat cross section decreases signifi-
cantly, and the bulk of the fluid circulates in the volute
through cross section I, as can be seen in Figure 7, result-
ing in the velocity in the volute increasing even though
the pump flow rate decreases. Because the bulk of the
fluid circulates in the volute, the static pressure gradi-
ent from cross section VIII to cross section I decreases
with decreasing pump flow rate. By comparing the three
cases, it can be observed that the static pressure remains
increasing and the circumferential distribution of static
pressure at the volute casing inlet becomes more uniform
with the increase in the volute casing flow area, similar
to the nominal flow rate condition. In addition, the total
pressure increases as a whole with increasing casing flow
area. As shown in Figure  11, there is only one vortex at
cross section I and the area of the vortex decreases with
Tao et al. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. (2019) 32:4 Page 7 of 13

Figure 8  Distribution of pressure and velocity in volute casing at nominal flow rate

Figure 9  Tangential components of velocity at cross-sections at nominal flow rate

Tao et al. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. (2019) 32:4
Figure 10  Distribution of pressure and velocity in volute casing at flow rate of 30 m3/h
increasing volute casing flow area. Two asymmetric
vortices can be observed at the throat cross section for
all the three cases because the flow rate offsets at a dis-
tance from the designed point. The area of the left vortex
decreases with increasing volute casing flow area. Under
the effect of the nonuniform circumferential static pres-
sure distribution at the volute casing inlet and the vortex
structure at the cross sections, the volute with a greater
flow area has a better hydraulic performance under the
small flow condition.
Figure 12 shows the distribution of static pressure and
velocity at the volute casing inlet, and the total pressure
Page 8 of 13
at the cross-sections, at a flow rate of 170  m3/h for the
three cases. It can be seen that the velocity distribution
at the volute inlet in the flow direction exhibits a signifi-
cant gradient, especially from cross section VIII to cross
section I. The reason, as can be seen in Figure 6, is that
the bulk of the fluid enters the diffuser through the throat
cross section instead of circulating in the volute because
of the large pump flow rate. The greater volute flow area
results in a greater fluid capacity, which will decrease the
velocity in the volute, especially the velocity at cross sec-
tion VIII. The lower velocity at cross section VIII results
in a smaller velocity gradient from cross section VIII to
Tao et al. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. (2019) 32:4 Page 9 of 13

Figure 11  Tangential components of velocity at cross-sections at flow rate of 30 m3/h

Figure 12  Distribution of pressure and velocity in volute casing at flow rate of 170 m3/h
Tao et al. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. (2019) 32:4 Page 10 of 13

cross section I, which results in a smaller static pressure 

gradient. As discussed above, the total pressure at cross
section I decreases with increasing volute casing flow
area. The reason has been analyzed before. The high-
energy flow discharged from the impeller passage close to
the volute tongue flows toward the throat cross section to
supplement the flow rate, resulting in a greater total pres-
sure in cross section I. Because of the lack of fluid flow
into the volute casing, the total pressure from cross sec-
tion II to cross section V decreases with increasing volute
casing flow area. However, the total pressure decreases
more sharply from cross section VII to the throat cross
section because of the greater velocity gradient for the
volute with the smaller flow area. As can be seen in Fig-
ure  13, the vortex structure at the cross-sections are
approximately identical. Therefore, the backflow at cross
section I and the significant velocity gradient from cross
section VIII to the throat cross section are the primary
reasons for the poorer hydraulic performance of the
volute with the smaller flow area.
5.4 Pressure Pulsations in Annular Volute
To analyze the pressure pulsation, the dynamic pressure
at the impeller periphery was used to present the pres-
sure pulsations in a normalized form to allow the scaling
of pressure pulsation data with respect to size and speed.
The pressure pulsation coefficient Cp is defined as:
p − p̄
Cp = , (1)
0.5ρu22
where p̄ represents the time-averaged static pressure
during the last impeller periods for each node, and u2 is
the circumferential component of the absolute velocity at
the impeller periphery.
In addition, a non-dimensional pressure fluctuation
intensity coefficient Cp∗ was defined to determine the
magnitude of the pressure fluctuations for an entire revo-
lution period as follows:
1
N −1 (p(t0 + i�t) − p̄)2
(2)
Cp∗ = ,
N 0.5ρu22
i=0
where t0 represents the starting time for one impeller
period of the transient simulation, and N is the sample
number during the last revolution period.
Figure  14 shows the distribution of the fluctuation
intensity coefficient as polylines in the annular volute.
It can be seen that the coefficient increases as a whole
with increasing flow rate for all the three cases. In addi-
tion, the polylines all exhibit four peaks, which is in
accordance with the number of impeller blades. The
four peaks have equivalent deviation angles of 90°. The
greatest pressure pulsation occurs approximately 30°
backward of the volute tongue, which means that the
interaction between the impeller trailing edges and the
volute tongue is the primary reason for the pressure
pulsations in the volute. In addition, the increase in the
volute flow area will alleviate the pressure pulsations in
the volute regardless of the pump working condition.
5.5 Radial Force
To evaluate the pump vibration, the radial force on
the shaft for the three cases was determined and the
results are presented in Figure  15. It can be seen that
the magnitude of radial force on the shaft increases
with increasing pump flow rate. The radial force dis-
tribution appears as a quadrangle, which is in accord-
ance with the impeller blade angles. In addition, the
quadrangle rotates clockwise as the flow rate increases.
The increase in the volute flow area can decrease the
magnitude of the radial force on the shaft, specifically
at the nominal flow rate and large flow condition that
can decrease the pump vibration, which resulted in an
improved operational stability of pump.

Figure 13  Tangential components of velocity at cross-sections at flow rate of 170 m3/h

Tao et al. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. (2019) 32:4
Figure 14  Distribution of fluctuation intensity coefficient at volute casing inlet
6 Conclusions
In this study, the influence of cross-sectional flow area
of an annular volute on the hydraulic loss, pressure
pulsations, and radial force on the shaft under varying
working conditions in a centrifugal ceramic pump were
investigated. Experiments were conducted for the vali-
dation of the numerical results. The primary conclu-
sions were as follows.
(1) When the volute casing flow area increased, the
hydraulic performance decreased marginally at the
Page 11 of 13
rated working condition but increased at off-design
points, specifically under the large flow condition.
However, the volute casing with a larger flow area
had a wider high-efficiency region.
(2) The nonuniform circumferential static pressure
distribution at the volute casing inlet and the vor-
tex structure at the cross-sections were the primary
reasons for the hydraulic loss in the volute under
the rated and small flow conditions. However, for
the large flow condition, the backflow at cross sec-
tion I and the large velocity gradient from cross sec-
Tao et al. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. (2019) 32:4
Figure 15  Radial force on shaft for three cases with flow rate variations
tion VIII to the throat cross section were the pri-
mary reasons.
(3) The greatest pressure pulsation occurred approxi-
mately 30° backward of the volute tongue. An
increase in the volute flow area decreased the pres-
sure pulsations in the volute regardless of the work-
ing condition, and decreased the radial force on the
shaft, which resulted in an improved operational
stability of pump.
It is anticipated that this study would be of ben-
efit during the design of annular volutes. The annular
volute cross-sectional area should be appropriately
greater than cross section VIII of the spiral volute
Page 12 of 13
casing to achieve an improved hydraulic performance
under large flow condition and an improved pump
operational stability. However, it should be noted that a
greater annular volute cross-sectional area will require
a larger pump, which will increase material costs and
make transportation more logistically difficult. There-
fore, the cross-sectional area of the annular volute
should be comprehensively considered during the
design.
Authors’ Contributions
YT was in charge of the whole trial; YT wrote the manuscript; SY, JL, and
FZ assisted with sampling and laboratory analyses. All authors read and
approved the final manuscript.
Tao et al. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. (2019) 32:4
Author Details
1
 Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology, Wuxi 214206, China.
2
 National Research Center of Pumps and System Engineering and Technol-
ogy, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
Authors’ Information
Yi Tao, born in 1988, is currently a lecturer at Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts
and Technology, China. He received his PhD degree from National Research
Center of Pumps and System Engineering and Technology, Jiangsu University,
China. His research interests include solid–liquid two-phase flow and design
of slurry pumps.
Shouqi Yuan, born in 1963, is currently a professor and a PhD candidate
supervisor at National Research Center of Pumps and System Engineering and
Technology, Jiangsu University, China. He has received 16 prizes for science and
technology advancement at province or ministry level. He has published 3
books and more than 240 papers. His research interests include the theory,
design and CFD of pumps and fluid machinery.
Jianrui Liu, born in 1952, is currently a professor and a PhD candidate
supervisor at National Research Center of Pumps and System Engineering and
Technology, Jiangsu University, China. His research interests include fluid
machinery engineering
Fan Zhang, born in 1987, is currently a PhD at National Research Center of
Pumps and System Engineering and Technology, Jiangsu University, China. His
research interests include flow characteristics in fluid machinery.
Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Funding
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.
51779107), Jiangsu Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
No. BK20170548), Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (Grant No.
2017M611724), and Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu
Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in pub-
lished maps and institutional affiliations.
Received: 8 May 2017 Accepted: 10 January 2019
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